


Common Ground

by hhertzof



Category: Tam Lin - Pamela Dean
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 07:22:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17075909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/pseuds/hhertzof
Summary: How will Janet and Tina survive a term without Molly to mediate?





	Common Ground

**Author's Note:**

  * For [metonymy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/metonymy/gifts).



Autumn began its slow spiral into winter and Janet dived back into her classes. Doctor's appointments, lectures, papers, all faded into a blur. She saw no reason, aside from the doctor's appointments, to change course now, just because there was a baby growing inside her. Her body obliged her by sparing her all but the mildest hints of morning sickness. Her brain, on the other hand, turned to mush.

She'd been so focused on the baby, and then on Thomas and what was to happen, that she'd missed things. Important things. It wasn't until she was standing in Jacobson's, considering what sort of Christmas gift Molly might want for her trip to Bermuda, that reality caught up with her. Molly would be in Bermuda for winter term. Molly would not be in their dorm room to catch Janet when her mind caught in the spiral of everything that had happened and grounded her. The suicidal thoughts had gone away after Janet had rescued Thomas and defeated Medeous, but there were still things she couldn't focus on, even knowing the truth.

"They never talk about the girls who survive," Janet thought. "What happens after they save the prince and settle down to happily ever after. Whatever their happily ever after might be." Somehow now the hard things, like having the baby, seemed simple, and the simple things, like going to class and dealing with Tina, seemed hard. No, that was a lie. It had never been easy for her to deal with Tina, even if it had finally sunk in, after four years of rooming with Tina, that Janet should have tried harder. Tina had been the one who remembered the "pink curtains" code word and Tina hadn't hesitated when she'd asked for help. They would just have to find some way to coexist while Molly was gone. Janet desperately hoped that the college wouldn't put a stranger in the room. For all the friction, Tina was a familiar presence now. Janet had enough on her plate without adjusting to a stranger.

This was still on her mind a couple of days later when she'd trudged through the early snowfall to her Math class only to find that it had been canceled because Mr. Brunner's car wouldn't start. She didn't mean to eavesdrop but when she returned to the dorm, Molly and Tina were deep in conversation and she heard her own name.

"-Janet. You're the glue that holds the three of us together." Tina was saying "I don't know what we're going to do without you."

"Just don't kill each other while I'm gone and you'll be fine," Molly replied dryly, and Janet was surprised to hear Tina laugh at that.

Janet still hadn't figured out Tina's sense of humor.

"I'm not sure we won't." Tina let out a deep sigh. "I get on her nerves, she gets on mine. All we have in common is that we roomed together for nearly four years and we both like men's adventure novels."

"And you both dated Thomas," Molly replied. 

Janet would never have dared say something like that to Tina. Or perhaps she would have blurted it out at just the wrong moment.

"And we both dated Thomas," Tina repeated, "but he seems to have stuck with Janet. Who dealt with this mess better than I would have."

That sounded almost like a compliment.

"See, she has her good points." Molly pounced.

"I never said she didn't." Tina sighed. "But there are times when I just don't know how to talk to her. It's like she's up on the cloud and I'm down on the ground, and you somehow manage to straddle them both."

"So be practical at her. Make sure she goes to the doctor and takes her vitamins and goes to class. Maybe just buy some explosives and guns and shoot your way to world peace." Molly really didn't like men's adventure novels. "I don't know. Maybe go see the James Bond movie together. Or drag her folk-dancing."

"She'll hate that," Tina said, sharply for her. "And probably wouldn't go."

"How do you know? Have you ever asked her? And even if she does, it'll be good for her. She's been too comfortable. She could use some shaking up."

Molly thought Janet was comfortable? Maybe she had been. Hadn't Janet been wistful about this being her last year here? Even the bad parts had faded into a peaceful glow. She'd been afraid of getting pregnant, but she had done so and the world hadn't ended. She resolved then and there to try anything Tina suggested, no matter how boring it sounded. After all, hadn't Tina joined her and Molly in things she hadn't had much of an interest in? Perhaps Janet owed it to her to do the same.

She must have missed the end of the conversation, because she could hear Molly grumbling about putting on her winter coat and gloating about being in Bermuda next month, so she pushed the door open as if she had just arrived. "Class was canceled," she said in a voice she hoped sounded cheerful. "Mr. Brunner's car wouldn't start, so someone left a note on the door. Brr, it's freezing out there. I had to stop on the way back for a hot chocolate." The hall had been empty, and she hadn't lingered outside the door for long, so that should cover her.  
Molly grumbled some more as she shoved her hands into her gloves. The only intelligible word was "Bermuda". Then "Off to brave the cold. Wish me luck. If I'm not back for dinner, send a search party."

Once the door had closed behind her, Tina said awkwardly, "I dropped by the housing department after biology. They said that since Molly was coming back in the spring and they don't need the space, it'll just be the two of us."

Janet stared at her admiringly. "I never would have thought of doing that. Thank you," she added.  
"You've been a bit foggy lately," Tina replied, tactfully not mentioning that Janet probably wouldn't have thought of it even before she got pregnant, which Janet appreciated. 

She considered at intervals through December possible middle ground between Tina and herself, and mostly came up short. Before their break, Janet had attempted to read one of Tina's psychology books and found the prose as irritating as that of the anthropologists she'd read in Freshman year, but she'd noticed Tina furtively doing the same with the books on Janet's shelves and felt she had to at least try. 

Christmas break came and went. Janet's family treated her with kid gloves up until the moment when she quite deliberately dropped her _Riverside Shakespeare_ on the table and yelled, "Stop it!" into the resulting silence. Beyond this she attempted to have as ordinary a Christmas as she could. Next year would be different. Next year, there would be a baby to care for. And though her mother offered again, Janet didn't want to be one of those mothers who dumped her baby on her own mother and went on as though nothing had happened. Pay the piper indeed.

Tina managed to write multiple times over the break, first on lilac stationary with violets and then on some of the stationary that Janet had given her for Christmas, yellow with kittens that looked almost like The Meebe, and Janet wrote back promptly. Somehow their letters were longer this time around, filled with logistics for Winter term and anecdotes of their Christmas revels. 

Janet had looked dubiously at the book Tina had given her when she'd first unwrapped it on Christmas day, as it didn't look like something she'd have ever picked up. But conscience found her tucked up in bed on the evening of the 25th with the copy of _All Creatures Great and Small_. Janet wasn't sure how one could make a veterinary practice amusing but if she truly didn't like it, she could always give it to Lily for a second opinion.

By the end of the first chapter, Janet had had to stop several times because she was laughing too hard. She eventually forced herself to slide a bookmark between the pages and drop the book on her nightstand so that she could sleep.

Janet finished _All Creatures Great and Small_ that morning after breakfast, at which point it was promptly stolen by Lily who'd "been meaning to read it." Janet smiled as Lily disappeared with the book, and then went to her desk to write a thank you note to Tina, which ran to three pages. In a fit of inspiration, she recommended _The Photogenic Soprano_ , an espionage novel she'd read the week before.

Tina hadn't read it, but she borrowed it from the library on Janet's recommendation, and she recommended a Georgette Heyer regency romance. Janet borrowed it from the library and once again found it a pleasant surprise.

For once, Tina was the first to arrive at their dorm room, as Janet found herself roped into a family project. When Janet got to their room, she found Tina sitting at her desk with her nose in her biology textbook.

"Classes don't start till Wednesday," Janet said helpfully.

"But comprehensives are coming up and I need to review," Tina replied before getting up to hug Janet. "I'm sure you've been doing the same. Or have you definitely decided to wait till fall?"

"I'm waiting till fall. But you're right, it wouldn't hurt me to start reviewing now. Maybe we should set up a schedule of quiet times for studying." Schedules had always worked for them in the past. "Oh, you brought more Heyer." Janet absently dropped her bag on her bed and grabbed _Frederica_ so she could read the cover flap.

Tina's laugh made her realize what she'd done. "I thought you might like those. I went through a huge romance phase in high school. Most of them were forgettable and after a while, the plots got a bit repetitive. By the time I got here I was so burned out on reading fiction, that all I wanted to read was the most clinical science. Now it's the other way around."

Janet couldn't imagine not wanting to read fiction, but she was willing to grant that Tina might feel that way if her tastes in fiction were limited. She reached over and put the book back, noticing as she did that Tina, the premed student, had also brought back two books on pregnancy. Maybe they would make it through this term after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Books referenced:
> 
>  _All Creatures Great and Small_ by James Herriot  
>  _The Photogenic Soprano_ by Dorothy Dunnett (also published as _Dolly and the Singing Bird_ and _Rum Affair_  
>  _Frederica_ by Georgette Heyer


End file.
